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Jan Ozer

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I help companies train new technical hires in streaming media-related positions; I also help companies optimize their codec selections and encoding stacks and evaluate new encoders and codecs. I am a contributing editor to Streaming Media Magazine, writing about codecs and encoding tools. I have written multiple authoritative books on video encoding, including Video Encoding by the Numbers: Eliminate the Guesswork from your Streaming Video (https://amzn.to/3kV6R1j) and Learn to Produce Video with FFmpeg: In Thirty Minutes or Less (https://amzn.to/3ZJih7e). I have multiple courses relating to streaming media production, all available at https://bit.ly/slc_courses. I currently work as www.netint.com as a Senior Director in Marketing.

WebM Encoding Tools: Five Popular Encoders Compared

This is a video that I produced for OnlineVideo.net on the subject. Here’s the description. In this video evaluation, Jan Ozer looks at and evaluates five popular WebM encoders: Miro Video Encoder Firefogg Wildfrom Flix WebM Telestream Episode Pro Sorenson Squeeze 7 You’ll learn why some are quite good and others aren’t worth your time. Ozer shows video samples of each …

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Posting Videos that Play on an iPad

Here’s a video that I produced for OnlineVideo.net on the subject.  Note that it looks absolutely fabulous in full screen (if I do say so myself) so give that a shot. Enjoy!

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Choosing a Premiere Pro Preset; HD Vs. SD

I shoot pretty much exclusively in HD now, but often render to SD DVDs. When it comes to choosing a sequence preset for Premiere Pro, I have two options, native HDV, which is the format that I typically shoot in, or 720×480 widescreen to match my DVD output. Which is better? Well, the quality difference isn’t significant, but it is …

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Manual vs Automatic Camera Operation

Whenever I shoot a live performance, I have an internal debate about which functions to perform manually and which to let the camera perform. Obviously, the panning and zooming is my job; the question is whether I also take on focus and/or exposure. I shot my fifth Nutcracker season just before Christmas, which adds up to about 20 shows total, …

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How to Encode To WebM

This is an excerpt from an article I wrote for StreamingMedia. Even if you don’t believe all the hype about HTML5, sooner or later, you’ll need to start encoding some video to WebM format. Maybe for internal experimentation, for a pay-per-view or subscription project (where H.264 may incur royalties), because you’ve decided to jump into HTML5 video with both feet, …

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Google Removes H.264 Codec From Chrome

This is an excerpt from my commentary, “Welcome to the Two-Codec World,” which you can read at StreamingMedia.com. Back when Google closed on the On2 acquisition, I wrote a blog post entitled Google Closes On2 Acquisition – Better check your Wallet. The wallet reference related to the fact that Google donating VP8 to the open source cause could boost the …

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New article on Producing for Adaptive Streaming at StreamingMedia.com

An article that I wrote on producing for adaptive streaming just posted at StreamingMedia.com. The article focuses on nitty gritty encoding details, like data rates, key frame intervals and the like. To write the article, I spoke with multiple producers, including MTV, Turner Broadcasting, Harvard and the Microsoftie in charge of NBC’s Olympics and Sunday Night Football streaming video offerings. …

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Streaming Spotlight: Peter Scott, Turner Sports

The VP of emerging media for Turner Sports talks about the network's delivery of the PGA Championship online, as well as the benefits of HTTP streaming and the implications of HTML5 video

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Adobe Provides Adaptive Streaming Presets for Adobe Media Encoder

Adaptive streaming is a hot topic for most streaming producers. If you produce your files with Adobe Media Encoder, you should know that Adobe has provided seven downloadable presets that you can use as a starting point. Click here to go to the download page.   You install the presets by manually copying them into your presets folder (a PDF …

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Vimeo and YouTube Enable iPad-compatible HTML5 Embedding

I use Vimeo to host all the videos that I have on this site. Originally, Vimeo used only a Flash-comptible player that wouldn’t play on iDevices. Here’s an example of that player, which will appear on your computer, but not your iPad or iPhone. Now, Vimeo has a new embed code that is HTML5 compatible and will play on my …

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